without being a lawyer - mandamus is a means by which local authorities are forced to levy a rate. The deal which the gas company promoters gave to the vestry was claimed by protestors to be on the lines of - £5,000 down and everyone in Greenwich get free gas for ever and ever.........................

Monday, 23 February 2009

Hopefully now everyone has tickets for the Greenwich University Big Band concert that Fred Parrott is running - Iris Bryce writes as follows

"With ref.to your Big Band Jazz concert - I thought you might be intererested to know that in 1949 Owen and Iris Bryce opened the first Jazz Club in Woolwich, the venue being the Cavendish Rooms in the Ritz Ballroom in Woolwich New Rd. A few months later we moved it to Mr.Tilley's Dance Studios in Calderwood Street - we called the Club 'The Sunday Barbecue' and not one of us had any real idea of what a barbecue was!. Owen was a founder member of the George Webb Dixielanders, the pioneer New Orleans Jazz that played in the Red Barn Barnehurst from 1943 - 46. In 1946 Humphrey Lyttelton joined the band and the rest as they say is History! I have written about this in TREE IN THE QUAD, the story of life in Woolwich in the 1940's - 70's - this was published by the University of Greenwich. The book has photos of the opening night when we brought three jazz musicians from Paris over, and the opening ceremony was by Ray Sonin, the editor of THE MELODY MAKER. The book is available from the Greenwich Heritage Centre. If we can help in any other way please don't hesitate to ask

Thanks Iris - I'm sure I'm not the only person who remembers Owen when he was playing in (whoops) the 1950s. His was easily the best band on Friday nights at the Terminus in Gravesend. Not sure if its industrial history, but it'll do!

We have a note from Richard Buchanan that apple trees in memory of Jack Vaughan and Dot Lawrence will be planted at Woodlands Farm on Sunday 8th March at 11 am. Richard says, get there early and wear sensible shoes!

I wanted to let you know about a new research project I am involved with which might be of interest to GIHS members. I have set it up along with Dr Neil Faulkner of Bristol University [and Current Archaeology] and Dr Nicholas Saunders, also of Bristol University. I am attaching the launch document but here is some background...

Digging Dad's Army- The East and South East London Peoples War Project. Digging Dads Army is designed to look at the surviving archaeology of conflict in East and South East London and tie it into intergenerational and cultural work looking at collection, commemoration and remembrance. It has grown out of work by the Great War Archaeology Group and my own work at Shooters Hill as well as other projects such as Gabe Moshenska's PhD work on Air Raid Shelters and children at UCL. We plan to do both field and archival work and to use the research programme as a vehicle to train field workers, including training in archive work, and as a basis for events presented to the wider public through work with schools [i.e. Key Stage 2 WW2] and on public events such as living history programmes and exhibitions. The project is based on the principle that you cannot do the research without presenting it to as wide a range of audiences as possible from the academic to the public and particularly to young people. We intend to fund it along the model of Neil Faulkner's long running Sedgeford Project where the research programme is funded through training courses with additional project funding where appropriate. In this respect it also ticks lots of boxes for community involvement, intergenerational work and so on. At the moment accounting and PLI etc comes through the Great War Archaeology Group and we see the project as being accomplished by a consortium of individuals and organisations each bringing different skills and resources. Because it is intended to be a multidisciplinary project, growing out of the community experience, we very much want to have locally based organisations, such as GIHS, with its interest in the Arsenal amongst other things, on board as partners. Particularly so we hope the project will generate access to participation in archaeology which is often lacking in the more orthodox research programmes as well as offering educational and training opportunities and avenues for publishing research. We intend that everything we do is published as soon as possible either down the traditional academic route, but also on line. We believe that with the various wartime anniversaries in the next few years, running up to the WW1 100 in 2014, such a project could generate quite a high profile, including with the media. As you may know Neil's work on the First Blitz and Zeppelin L33 made a Time Watch and for all its faults as a programme, we got a Time Team out of the work at Shooters Hill. It also helps that Neil is issue editor for Current Archaeology Magazine. The next issue will carry a piece on Shooters Hill and this project.

Sunday, 15 February 2009

Note their Annual General Meeting is on 7th March 2.15 at Charlton House.

The newsletter includes a long report by our own Sue Bullevant - including sites in Woolwich which have been demolished or something similar.Sue also commemorates Jack Vaughan and there is also a note about the tree which it is planned to dedicate to him.

As ever there is very little about London (or Kent!) in their newsletter. There is however a long article by Bob Carr on "The 2012 Olympics and the Thames Gateway - a challenge for Industrial Archaeology and the Environment". This is however largely about South Essex - but he does come as near to Greenwich as Robin Hood Gardens. (dare I mention our encounter with Eric Sorenson in this context!!)

The annual conference is this year to be in Lincoln 4-10th September. No parking at all! which will upset the many AIA members who never use public transport unless it is steam driven and preserved.

GLIAS Newsletter - February 2009- includes a very long list of interesting looking lectures. Note GLIAS lectures:18th February - Tim Smith on Sarson's Vinegar (the whiff of vinegar which used to hit us on the trains just before London Bridge Station!)18th March Stationary Steam - John Porter. This is about Kew Bridge Engines Trust20th May - AGM - and Robert Stephenson by Michael Bailey.all at Robin Brook Centre, St.Bartholomew's Hospital, 6.3021st March Industrial Archaeology Study Day with Denis Smith Birkbeck College. bookings 020 7631 6627 25th April SERIAC The Guildhall Winchester 01962 855200

The newsletter also contains an item about the opening of the new DLR Station in Woolwich - and the small amount of press coverage it generated.

Someone else has picked up issues around Payne's Wharf - and quoted the 'Lorry Drivers Bible' on how to get there and what to do when you did.

There is an article about Grants available from AIA and how to get them and what they give them for -industrial heritage assets!

SLAS NewsExcellent Newsletter from Southwark and Lambeth Archaeological SocietyIt includes an excellent article on the Heritage Protection Billand also - note - they have a speaker on the Greenwich Tide Mill on April 14th 7.30 at 106 The Cut, SE1.(Greenwich Industrial History has really really tried to get this speaker to come to us!)